Equal pay for women
From Free net encyclopedia
Equal pay for women is an issue involving pay inequality between men and women. It is often introduced into domestic politics in many first world countries as an economic problem that needs governmental intervention via regulation. Generally, in third world countries due to cultural and/or religious reasons the pay disparity is much higher.
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Equal Pay Act of 1963
Main article: Equal Pay Act of 1963
Legislation passed in the Federal Government of the United States in 1963 made it illegal to pay men and women different wage rates for equal work on jobs that require equal skill, effort, and responsibility and are performed under similar working conditions.
Equal Pay Act of 1970
Main article: Equal Pay Act 1970
The Equal Pay Act of 1970 was established by the British Parliament to prevent discrimination as regards to terms and conditions of employment between men and women.
A similar act to these was passed in France in 1972.
Gender Wage Equity in the United States
A comparison frequently cited women make (fill in blank) cents on the dollar to men is derived from statistics maintained by the United States Census Bureau, relating specifically to an across-the-board comparison of year-round full-time workers. Series P-60 of the Current Population Reports maintains regular updates on the distribution of the American population by income, broken down by various demographic attributes, including age and gender.
A closer view of these statistics tends to show that the two most common takes on the issue -- the more right-leaning standpoint espoused by "The Wage Gap Myth" and the more left-leaning point of view which ties inequities to discrimination -- both miss the mark. In fact, aggregate statistics tend to gloss over the most significant feature of the inequity, which is the time of birth -- the generation or cohort of the population.
Much of what is otherwise attributed to this issue may rightfully be considered to already be subsumed by this single attribute. The society you are born and raised in, in large measure, conditions the values you are instilled with and, subsequently, the propensity toward choosing one or another type of career. Likewise, it conditions the attitudes of your potential coworkers, underlings and bosses ... as well as those who would have the power to hire, promote or fire you.
Three interesting features stand out, when the demographics are broken down by time of birth:
- For a given generation, the relative wage disparity tends to remain the same over time. Overall, there is a slight downward trend, but compared to nearby generations, the difference is not that significant.
- The disparity does not have a history of having steadily diminishing over time. In fact, it reaches its maximum with the generation preceding the baby boom generation, bottoming out for those who reached their 20th birthday in the mid 1950's.
- Following this generation, there is an abrupt transition going from generation to generation. Roughly speaking, for the baby boomers' parents, it's around 60 cents on the dollar; for the baby boomers, about 70-75; for those who reached their 20th birthday in the mid 1980's, about 80-85; and for the youngest workers today, it's reached and passed 95 cents on the dollar.
The momentum does not show significant signs of abating, and it is very close to linear. If extrapolated, based on the figures for these generations drawn from the 1970, 1975, 1980, ..., 2000 compilations, it shows an indication of reaching and exceeding 100 cents on the dollar by around 2010. The best linear fit done based on the P-60 figures for 1980-2000 (and 2001 and 2002) for those born on or after 1945 included 38 data points and a 90% goodness of fit. The P-60 figures used broke down the 15-25 group into 15-20, 20-25 in 1985, but aggregated them for the other dates. The remaining age groups were segmented into 5 year ranges (25-30, 30-35, etc.). The linear fit has the characteristics
- 77.01 cents on the dollar in 1995 for someone whose 20th birthday was in 1980
- 3.26 cents on a dollar decrease per decade, for each generation
- 8.96 cents on the dollar increase per decade in time of birth
A quadratic fit shows a slight tendency toward levelling off.
Another lesser trend (which may be a product of the small sampling size of the P-60 data for the age group in question and large statistical fluctuations resulting from it) is that there is a noticeable upturn in relative wage equity for the oldest workers, whose 20th birthdays preceded the 1950's. This is not just with respect to generation, as already noted above, but also over time. The 2000 P-60 figures for those who reached 20 before 1950 indicate a relative wage level of about 80 cents on the dollar (but 77 in 2001, 70 in 2002, 65 in 1995).
Based on the P-60 data, the following "dividers" may be noted, based on the current age and the period in question:
For 70 cents on the dollar:
- In 1970: ages 30 and below
- In 1975, 1980: 25 and below
- In 1985, 1990: 30 and below
- In 1995: 40 and below
- In 2000: 45 and below
- (In 2002: 50 and below)
This list excludes those born before 1925, whose members tend to be above the 70 cents on the dollar divider, but where the above-noted fluctuations occur.
For 80 cents on the dollar:
- Before 1980: Non-existent
- 1980, 1985: ages 25 and below
- 1990: 35 and below
- 1995, 2000: 30 and below
- (In 2001: 35 and below)
For 90 cents on the dollar:
- Before 1985: Non-existent
- 1985: ages 20 and below
- 1990, 1995, 2000: 25 and below
- (In 2001: 30 and below)
The disparity seen in the aggregate 75 cents on the dollar (or whatever figure is quoted) is thus seen to arise because the baby boomers and their parents are pulling down the average. However, as they are now reaching retirement age, this masking effect will be removed, and the abrupt transition seen from generation to generation will come to be reflected in a similar abrupt transition in the overall average.